About Benedicte Maurseth
Hardanger fiddle player, composer and writer Benedicte Maurseth (b.1983) is a well- established and esteemed composer/performer on Norway’s folk music scene. Born in Eidfjord in the beautiful Hardanger Fjord region in western Norway, today her home is in the city of Bergen, where she works as a freelance musician. Maurseth has studied with Hardanger fiddle master Knut Hamre for close to 30 years, and traditional music from Hardanger is her area of expertise. She is an alumna of the prestigious Ole Bull Academy, where she studied Norwegian Folk Music Performance, and in recent years, Maurseth has expanded her work to include Norwegian traditional folk singing (kveding).
In 2007 she came to wider attention as Norway’s Young Folk Musician of the Year. Since then Maurseth has toured extensively as a soloist and in collaboration with others, both in Norway and internationally. She works closely with many of the leading artists across genres, especially within early music and improvised music. She has also worked with writers and actors and has a deep interest in baroque instruments and has for several years worked with fiddles dating back to the 1700s. She also uses gut strings and Baroque bows and tunes her fiddle in a lower pitch than what is common among most Hardanger fiddlers today.
For many years, Maurseth has also composed new material for the Hardanger fiddle, both for solo performances, solo recordings, and for the theatre and other ensembles. For her latest commissioned work, Tidekverv, she was awarded the NOPA Music Prize for 2017. She also received the Voss Jazz Prize for 2018, as well as many prestigious fellowships from the Norwegian state in order to concentrate on cultivating her tradition and creative work. She has recorded several albums for Grappa and ECM and has released books and essays. Her book about art, teaching and music as healing; To be nothing. Conversations with Knut Hamre, Hardanger Fiddle Master, is available in English through Terra Nova Press / MIT Press, Fall 2019.
